How is it my wife and I can watch a British mystery and six months later watch the same show and still can’t remember who’s the villain until the last five minutes. It’s a little disconcerting – but it does give us a chance to enjoy the same show more than once!
The same can be said about brainteasers such as the ones I shared several years ago from a post by Holly Green on the Forbes Magazine website. For me these brainteasers are a test to see how well I can stretch my mind, but also to see if I can still remember the answers. Unfortunately, I usually fail at both.
But let’s see how well you do by either solving the brainteasers or remembering the answers from several years ago.
1. A clerk at a butcher shop stands five feet ten inches tall and wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh? 2. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? 3. What word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly? 4. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? 5. A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?
Now these next five I found more difficult – at least that’s what my brain told me.
5. Johnny’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name? 6. If you were running a race and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now? 8. Two boxers are in a match scheduled for 12 rounds. One of the boxers gets knocked out after only six rounds, yet no man throws a punch. How is this possible? 9. What is unusual about the following words: revive, banana, grammar, voodoo, assess, potato, dresser, uneven? 10. What makes this number unique — 8,549,176,320?
How did you do? Whether you answered the questions correctly or not is not as important as stimulating your brain by just trying to answer them. But remember, brain stimulation is just one component of good brain health. The other five are: physical exercise, social engagement, good nutrition, stress management, and a good night’s sleep.
The name of the hit song that told the story of a shy girl wearing a new kind of swim suit was “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini”. I received correct answers from Kim Birge, Lana Tepfer and this week’s winner of a quilt raffle ticket, Dan Ross who will be performing at his 50th LaGrande High School Reunion in August with the same rock-n-roll band he played in while attending LHS.
If you have lived in the Dalles for more than 30 years, you probably remember the Shamrock – described by Claude Akins on the Tonight Show as a Chinese Restaurant with an Irish name where you could listen to live country music. Akins was in The Dalles filming an episode of the 1974-1976 TV series Movin’ On and one of his costars also ate at the Shamrock. (Jeanne Pesicka has an autographed coaster to prove it.) For this weeks “Remember When” question, who was this costar and comedian famous for his impressions of Burt Lancaster, James Cagney and Kirk Douglas. Email your answer to www.mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, leave a message at 541-296-4788 or send it with a picture of the Riddler from the TV series Batman.
Well it’s been another week trying to think ahead but getting further behind. Until we meet again, keep the lid on and the kettle warm.
“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” Dumbledore from Harry Potter
